And they are off and racing…

The thunder of hooves can no longer be heard on racecourses in our area but, during the first half of the twentieth century, Proserpine and district could boast numerous racetracks: the Racecourse Reserve at the Landing, Hamilton Plains, Showgrounds, Breadalbane Station on the highway and behind the cemetery. Kelsey Creek had three different racetracks and at holiday time there were tracks at Conway Beach, Bloomsbury and Midge Point.

Renwick’s Lane was one of the oldest roads in the area and when dry, it was used as one of Proserpine’s earliest racetracks. Local bullocky, Isaac Fox, often earned the fury of jockeys by using the road when wet to cart loads of gear in his wagon thereby creating great ruts from end to end which made racing impossible.

Museum archives indicate that c.1910 Proserpine’s first racetrack was at Glen Isla and most patrons went down by loco. The “Port Denison Times” March 8, 1910, states: “Permission has been given to the trustees to lease the Racecourse Reserve at Proserpine for 10 years @ £20 per annum.” This track was near the river landing from where Proserpine Mill sugar was loaded onto boats prior to the opening of the railway between Bowen and Proserpine in July 1910.

In June 1911, the Picnic Race Club met to make arrangements for races during Show Week and The Proserpine Trustees’ Race Club was organising its first race meeting to be held on a seven-furlong course ‘some four miles from town.’ The course was ‘an ideal place to hold a day’s sports, being nicely shaded by trees along a creek.’ At the time, it was considered that Proserpine had one of the best racetracks in Queensland.

The end of the war saw several races held in aid of the Returned Soldiers Repatriation Fund, one being an eleven-event meeting held by the Proserpine and District Race Club on June 14, 1918. In March 1919, the club also held a race meeting on St Patrick’s Day. It was claimed that, in the Sweepstakes, Gentleman Jack would have won had he been given his head, but his rider proved ‘too powerful in the arms’!! An inquiry into the jockey’s riding dismissed the case but cautioned the jockey.

More races followed, but not without some more unsavoury practices …

• Headlines the week after races on September 27, 1919, read, “Rotten Tactics”!  Not one of the three horses in the Handicap Race finished the course. Coal Dust ran off the track at the junction of the road to town; Digger and Mock left the track a little further around. Apparently, none of the riders was out to win and the event was declared ‘a no-race and all bets off’.

• On December 20, a sensation was caused when it became known that a mare, believed to be Say Kid, was falsely entered as Bally in an event which she won easily. The mare’s face was smeared with molasses and the horse was ungroomed. The rider, a ‘warned’ jockey, was “severely handled after the finish. …and had to take shelter until ‘the police intervened and the crowd gradually cooled down.”

• In August 1921, stewards declared two of the races as “crook”. The owner and jockey of Comedian were fined for inconsistent riding, and the trot was declared a no-race.  However, everybody must have been on their best behaviour the following month as the race meeting on September 3 was declared ‘one of the best’.

In October 1925, local businessmen, determined ‘to see that all is fair and square and above board’, formed the Proserpine Turf Club.

The new committee was still operating in 1926 so perhaps they were successful …

Story and photo courtesy Proserpine Historical Society and Reminiscences of the late Peter Faust

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